Government Structure
New Hampshire state government is designed to diffuse power. Each member of the enormous legislature and a remarkably weak governor are up for reelection every two years. Department heads can have terms up to three times longer than the governor that appointed them, and tight budgets ensure a constant battle for resources resulting in poor long-term planning and employee turnover. This confusion, and the inevitable results, are detailed further below.
New Hampshire state government is designed to diffuse power. Each member of the enormous legislature and a remarkably weak governor are up for reelection every two years. Department heads can have terms up to three times longer than the governor that appointed them, and tight budgets ensure a constant battle for resources resulting in poor long-term planning and employee turnover. This confusion, and the inevitable results, are detailed further below.
Muddled lines of Responsibility
The graphic below represents the lines of authority for the principal agencies and government officials involved in the response to FRM. The departments and employees represented below are a small fraction of those in state government, each with similarly crossed, diverse, and weak lines of authority.
Pew Flunks New Hampshire
Every three years the Pew Center on the States releases a report entitled "Grading the States" in which the Center evaluates the states on essential measures of performance, including how policy is made and evaluated, how employees are hired, trained and reviewed, fiscal policy, and long-term infrastructure planning. In the most recent report (2008), New Hampshire garnered the lowest combined score of all 50 states: D+.
The report cites a political system that weakens and reelects its leaders every two years, a large institutionalized bureaucracy that slows decision making, and antiquated technology and information sharing capabilities that hamper good government.
Further, though not mentioned in the Pew report, former Securities Director Connolly in his book raises another important concern with the state's political system: the volunteer nature of the state legislature. Connolly notes that because of both its size and the high turnover rate, the legislature "can be overly reliant upon lobbyists for information and institutional memory," a fault he cites as at times working against the interest of New Hampshire citizens and for those with the deepest pockets. Connolly also links the strength of the state's professional lobbyists to the appointment and reappointment of some in government viewed to be most supportive of particular monied interests. (Cover-Up p. 208)
The report cites a political system that weakens and reelects its leaders every two years, a large institutionalized bureaucracy that slows decision making, and antiquated technology and information sharing capabilities that hamper good government.
Further, though not mentioned in the Pew report, former Securities Director Connolly in his book raises another important concern with the state's political system: the volunteer nature of the state legislature. Connolly notes that because of both its size and the high turnover rate, the legislature "can be overly reliant upon lobbyists for information and institutional memory," a fault he cites as at times working against the interest of New Hampshire citizens and for those with the deepest pockets. Connolly also links the strength of the state's professional lobbyists to the appointment and reappointment of some in government viewed to be most supportive of particular monied interests. (Cover-Up p. 208)